Good luck to six high school students from Noble Central School who will be participating in the Can You Hear Me Now? Provincial Poetry SLAM event in Calgary.
The Noble Central team is one of 16 teams competing Friday and Saturday, April 17-18. It’s the only team from rural Alberta in the event.
Students will perform their original poems for judges and the audience and given an individual score. Scores are combined to determine a team score.
According to the event website (http://canyouhearmenowyychs.com/), “The slam is a friendly competition characterized by mutual respect, encouragement and inspiration. As the spirit of SLAM says: ‘The point is not the points. The point is the poetry.’ ”
Teacher and poetry SLAM coach Desiree Lamb is accompanying her team whose members have been working on writing, revising, memorizing and performing their poems as part of a poetry club at school.
Each school will perform one poem in each round. There are five rounds in each bout, and there are eight bouts over the course of two days. At the end of the preliminary bouts, four teams will advance to compete in the finals Saturday from 3 to 5 p.m.
Noble Central’s first bout is at 3 p.m. Friday. The event is being held at Lord Beaverbrook and Robert Thirsk high schools.